Governance: An international journal of policy, administration and institutions

How experts “do politics” to achieve policy change

Too many accounts of policy reforms in developing countries discount the role of bureaucrats and experts as agents of policy innovation, Ricardo Gutiérrez argues in the current issue of Governance (23.1). His study of water management reform in three Brazilian states suggests that experts can play the critical role. In these states, reform was not primarily the result of crisis, party or civil society pressure, or intervention by international organizations. Instead, experts drove change. Experts “do politics,” Gutiérrez argues, “when they use expertise as a political resource and broker political, bureaucratic, and social relationships to get their proposals approved and implemented.” Read more: When Experts Do Politics: Introducing Water Policy Reform in Brazil.